Prisoners Saved A Female Guard From Sexual Assault

Laura BarcellaMar 4, 2015 10:10 AM

EMMANUEL DUNAND/Getty Images.

According to the New York Daily News, a group of inmates at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island prison jumped to the defense of a female corrections officer who was being sexually assaulted by an inmate on Saturday night. Fortunately, they managed to successfully stop the attack.

The details of the rescue are a bit murky, but apparently, one of the inmates was thin enough to squeeze through a slight crack in a locked security vestibule. He then pried open the door, allowing more people to rush inside and help the woman.

The alleged perpetrator was Raleek Young, currently serving 5 to 10 years for raping a 13-year-old girl. Young somehow got into the security station after he said he was heading to grab a mattress from a different unit; he was reportedly seen choking the officer with his pants down while he masturbated and forcibly touched her. Most of the attack was recorded on tape.

Per the Daily News, jail officials originally logged the attack as a “routine ‘use of force’” incident, but it was escalated to a sexual-assault case after fellow officers cried foul. On Sunday, the victim's co-workers even refused to show up for work at their 3 p.m. start time as a means of protest.

Though additional charges against Young weren’t filed at first, he’s now been hit with more dents on his rap sheet — on Monday, in Bronx Criminal Court, he was arraigned for “attempted rape, sexual abuse, forcible touching, and assault and harassment," according to the Daily News.